Altoids-Sours based Speaker/Amp?

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Alright, here's what I'm trying to do:

I want to make a speaker for my iPod, that people can here without being 2 inches away. I was thinking of doing this is one of the circular altoids sours tins (roughly 75mm diameter)

I was looking at speakers, and this one looks decent:

Digi-Key - 668-1112-ND (Manufacturer - AS02708CO-WR-R)

Unfortunately, that is the extent of my knowledge. I want to power it with a single AA, because I don't think I could fit 2 in there, but I don't know what amp, what circuit, what ANYTHING. Help me, please?
 
Your not going to power any speaker amp with a single AA I can tell you that. It's hard enough making a headphone amp do that, and I still think there are to many compromises that way.

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit
That amplifier is designed as a head amp but will easily power a set of small speakers. I use a 9.6v(Nominal not max V) NiMh battery pac for an RC car. You can get one of 1000mAh with the charger from RadioShack. It will last around 4-5 hours at full volume. Look for a set of cheap Ipod speakers that are made to use no amp and you will have to turn it down most of the time.;) Look for speakers in the dollar store and take a portable player. Look for a speaker around 2" or bigger. You can always change the speakers enclosure later for a better sound. You need to find an efficient speaker. I'm sure you can get exactly what you need at a discount store or the like. Even order it from the net for less than the shipping.

P.S. Every part of this project you can go buy at RadioShack. Don't forget a case for it. I used a white plastic travel soap case.. I'm cheap! The battery is the same size as the soap case only thinner. So I strapped it underneath with a zip tie. You can fit the battery inside easy if you want to. I just wanted to be able to change power sources easy. My friend used a small 3" square piece of Tupperware for his and he broke the battery down and fit it inside with a connection for the charger.
 
Well, the whole deal is that I want to make my own, not just assemble something. If there's just kind of a simple circuit that I could power with maybe a 9v or 2 AA, then feed into the speaker.... Does anybody know of such a design?

:D :D How cute. LOL
What kind of answer did you expect? You are in a chip amp forum. Where we make amps out of silicon chips called Chip Amps! The headbanger amp is made with a chip amp called the LM386.. Making sense, yes..
Did you even look at the page I listed?!!! It is a tutorial on how to build your own amplifier! I know it says Kit but what it means is it is all the information, the schematics, the detailed instructions. IT IS NOT A KIT... IT IS A TUTORIAL... you still have to buy the individual parts from a store and build the thing. That is exactly what that is.. FFS read it!!! That guy has shown you how to build a stereo speaker/headphone amp with parts you can get at RadioShack! If you don't want to buy parts, how are you going to build anything?

The circuits don't get any more simple than that. Look, I can tell your new at this. You can't power any worthwhile speaker amp with only 1.2-2.4v ok. You WILL need about 9-10v minimum! You can't just jumble some wires together with a battery and make an amp. They are complex electrical circuits. You have to start out by building amps that other people have designed and learn a lot more before you can even think about designing your own.

There are very few noob friendly designs available. The one I listed is just about the only one I can think of that will power small speakers reliably and is photo documented and all laid out for the beginner to build. It really doesn't get any easier. This will run off one 9v battery but it wont last very long or get very loud. It really needs 12v for speakers.

Here is some light reading to help you in your quest for DIY audio.
Audiologica
Remeber! We don't build this stuff to save money. We build it because no one will build it as well as we can. If you really don't want to get into this, then go to Walmart and buy a cheap set of battery powered computer speakers and take them apart! Bang... instant battery powered amp with speakers! You can tell everyone you built it. We won't say anything.;) I hope you take the red pill and join the side of the greater good though.
 
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Thank you very much. When I looked through there, it was more of a brief glance.

You're right, I am an extreme beginner, so thanks for the help. As for the speaker, I just assume that rather than the output of the amp going to a 1/8 stereo jack, it goes to the speaker?
 
Correct. You would connect the three wires.(1 ground and 2 signal) to the speakers just like you would headphones.

Before I confuse you, each speaker will need signal and ground wires but the ground from each side goes to one place on the amp. That's why I say three.;)
 
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If you just want a simple circuit to drive 2 speakers from a 9v battery, get a TDA2822 chip. This will do what you want with a fairly low parts count.

There's another option with the 2822 - you can buy two, bridge each and have one speaker per chip, and run the whole thing off two cellphone batteries in series. No big capacitors required (read: EVEN LOWER PARTS COUNT and smaller footprint too), and it'll get louder.

Noise does become somewhat of an issue tho, as the TDA2822 bridged has ridiculous gain. But i've built one and it was LOUD. :D Certainly louder than a cellphone, and i used to own the Nokia 6233 which has the loudest and clearest speakers you will ever find in a phone.

Anyway, if you don't know any of this electronics mumbo jumbo, try making something that flickers an LED first. Then learn a little bit about opamps (nothing too big, just basic configurations and how to set gain), then build something around the TDA2822. In essence, audio amplifiers are just big opamps. Try reading this. It's quite a fun presentation. :)

Also the basic tools required: Breadboard (i prefer the soldered type, it's more reliable), solder, flux, solder sucker, and soldering iron of 15-20W power. And a cheap digital multimeter. You can get all of those tools for under $50 at your local radio shack or similar store, and even cheaper if you get one of those chinese soldering irons, but they aren't all that good. Once you have those you're good to go.

Then learn to follow a schematic and order your stuff on the breadboard. Having wires jumbled all over the place not only looks ugly but increases the noise and distortion of the circuit, and you don't want that. Then you can use a PCB design program and make actual circuit boards. I prefer ExpressPCB, as a matter of fact you can actually design your circuit in it and build it on the breadboard rather than a PCB, i do many of my designs like that because i'm too lazy to make PCBs. It makes for a really ordered breadboard. :)
 
He could do any number of things, but he is a beginner. The headbanger page has everything explained from point to point with diagrams and even photos of what it should look like. The pictures really help when you don't exactly understand what the text says or what your doing. Plus, it is pretty low parts count as it is. If my feeling is correct, he wants to build it because he wants to understand how they work. I think going much easier would be a disservice.
 
Maybe, but i may just be "under the influence" a bit too much. I still think a basic knowledge of opamps is needed to build an audio amplifier - and i'm talking from experience - i'm just 18 and i built my first amp 4 years ago, and it wasn't easy at all. Knowing how things run even at the most basic level would have been great help.

For one to work with transistors, one's not supposed to know how transistors work, just their basic modes of operation as encountered in the real world. The same goes with chips - heck you could train a monkey to wire up a working TDA7294. But will the monkey be able to explain why it makes music (at least to human ears) ? Hell no it won't.
 
TDA7267A is an ideal chip. It is a mono chip so you need two. Not counting the supply decoupling cap (which can be used to decouple both ICs) you need only 3 caps per chip to make it work. The input cap is a film type.

It has a true complementary output so full rail to rail voltage swing is possible on the output. (no bootstrap cap). No boucherot cell. Fixed gain so no negative feedback parts.

One side of the 16 pin DIP is ground for heat-sinking and can be used as a ground plain for soldering.

No circuit board needed. Just epoxy the top side of the IC to the Altoid tin and solder any component going to ground across the chip. Couldn't be any easier.

You may want add two 1k resistors as a voltage divider on the input because extra gain of the amp may be much for the headphone output of the Ipod.

Not sure if you can shoehorn a 4 AAA battery holder into an Altoids tin.
 
TDA7267A is an ideal chip. It is a mono chip so you need two. Not counting the supply decoupling cap (which can be used to decouple both ICs) you need only 3 caps per chip to make it work. The input cap is a film type.

It has a true complementary output so full rail to rail voltage swing is possible on the output. (no bootstrap cap). No boucherot cell. Fixed gain so no negative feedback parts.

One side of the 16 pin DIP is ground for heat-sinking and can be used as a ground plain for soldering.

No circuit board needed. Just epoxy the top side of the IC to the Altoid tin and solder any component going to ground across the chip. Couldn't be any easier.

You may want add two 1k resistors as a voltage divider on the input because extra gain of the amp may be much for the headphone output of the Ipod.

Not sure if you can shoehorn a 4 AAA battery holder into an Altoids tin.


I really do like these these chips John. There is a stereo version too. TDA7268.. The gain on all of them seems to be in the 30s though. I would hate for noise to be an issue. It may not be. It just seems to be more suitable for a guitar amp. With a line level source, you won't get much pot travel using a 10K. Input resistance is around 100k according to the data sheet. I don't like the fact that the gain is not adjustable and impedance matching seems limited without an input buffer. Then you end up adding more parts anyway.

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I did find an interesting series of videos that includes some the amps discussed here and how audio amplifiers work down to a single transistor pair. It is pretty easy to understand. Hopefully the OP is still around. I think we scared him off:(

YouTube - Audio amplifier IC chip amp - How to use PT 1 Part1 of 3
YouTube - Setting up audio chip amp on breadboard Building the exact amp john discussed.
YouTube - Audio amplifier IC chip amp review TDA7268 TDA7267 this shows the stereo version.
 
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Sadly, The TDA7268 (16 pin DIP stereo) and TDA7267 (8 pin DIP mono) is now marked obsolete when I view the datasheets. Just happened over the last few months.:(

The TDA7267A is the mono 16 pin DIP and is available. It is really the same as the 8 pin version, but the bigger thermal path allows it to be operated at 14.5 volts with 8 ohms for more power output. The 8 pin version is limited to 12 volts at 8 ohms. Of course, you can use 4 ohm loads up to around 11 volts.

I love these chips. I tested them and scoped them under stress. They are stable, quiet, very easy to use and sound good. With floating inputs, they can be paired and used as a bridge amp with 9 volt supply 8 Ohm load for more power.

Yes, you do need to reduce the input voltage a bit for line level devices. I find some of my mp3 collection to be recorded not so high, so the extra headroom is welcome. A couple cheap resistors is no big deal.
 
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Hey, I'm back...

Alright, after reading several of your responses, I decided to get a bit more specific here. I want to try and power the amp with a single 9v, which I know won't last for very long. I also do NOT want stereo - mono works just fine for my purposes. I assume that to do this, a single half of the headbanger circuit design would work?

Beside the headbanger, what SIMPLE design options do I have? Once again, I want to try and get the fewest number of components possible, and the smallest, so it can fit in a pretty small container. (roughly 75 MM diameter) I found that little speaker I posted in the first post of this topic, is that a good speaker, or what, because once again, I'm pretty much clueless.

Alternatively, I saw somebody who just hooked up a small speaker without an amp to a 3.5mm audio jack and a variable resistor, and played music with that. Unfortunately, I can't find anywhere how loud something like that would be. That's why I wanted to power my device externally, but if this works, and has a decent volume (something that a small group of say 5 or so people would be able to hear) then that would be fine, I think, and I'd forgo the amp (I hope that isn't blasphemy or anything...)
 
Sorry for the double post, but I found this:

Pocket Protest (a LM386 amp in a 9v battery casing)

Says it's high-gain, though, and I don't want that. Just an idea, and kind of a clue as to what I"m capable of. I can do that, pretty easily.

Go to Datasheet catalog for integrated circuits, diodes, triacs, and other semiconductors, view and open the datasheet for the LM386. On the first page there a sample schematic showing an amplifier with minimum parts. Gain should match well with portable audio devices. One mistake they show is no power supply decouple cap on Vs pin to ground. For small speakers, use output coupling cap of 220uf. No point in wasting battery power by sending low frequency sounds into a speaker that can't reproduce them anyway with larger cap. SVR cap (pin 7) is not needed if amp is to be powered by batteries only. Use 8 ohm load minimum. LM386 output drive current is too weak for 4 ohm loads at 9 volts Vs and doesn't really give you much better output, just hotter chip and less battery life.
 
Once again, sorry for the double post, but the sample circuit has a 250 uF capacitor in it, which, for some reason, I can't find a good place to buy one. Any tips?

Also, why not just use the circuit diagram in the Pocket Protest link?
 
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